Tuesday, 25 July 2017

The hundreds of shoppers who daily pass by Urban Outfitters
and Schuh on London's Oxford Street will be unaware that the building above
them played a part in Britain's wartime broadcasting effort. Yet it was the place where George Orwell broadcast
to India and Ed Murrow to the States. It was where John Arlott started his
career as a radio producer, at one point working alongside a young David
Jacobs. And it was where a girl in the typing pool called Jean Metcalfe got her
first opportunity to be in front of the microphone.

Behind 200 Oxford Street cut through Great Portland Street
and then take a right down Market Place and there's a clue for those that spot
the plaque on the wall just next to the entrance of what is now known as Orwell
Studios. It reads: "From June 1942 for fifteen years, this building was
the headquarters of the BBC Overseas Services. During the war direct broadcasts
were made to America from the roof while air-raids were in progress, The BBC
vacated the premises in November 1957".

In the early days of the Second World War the BBC was asked
by the Government to treble its output abroad so increasing the scale of both
its Overseas and European Services, then based at Broadcasting House. Also for security reasons some departments
were being re-located, hence the move out to Wood Norton in Worcestershire for
the likes of the drama staff.

During 1940 the various parts of the BBC's Empire Service
found itself split up over three sites. Most of what would be the European
Services was shifted to Bush House - after having first being evacuated to
Maida Vale - others were billeted to Aldenham House in Hertfordshire and Abbey
Manor near Evesham.

In June1941 BBC engineers indentified the basement of what
was then the Peter Robinson department store, just round the corner from
Broadcasting House in Oxford Street, as suitable for wartime studios. A
surprising decision perhaps as the store had been ravaged by bombing in
September 1940 - Broadcasting House itself was hit the following month.

Anyway the menswear department moved out of the basement and
the BBC moved in to build the nine (later thirteen) studios and a control room.
Some office accommodation was then added to the floors above and from June 1942
staff from both Aldenham House and Abbey Manor moved in.

In fact, as the plaque in Market Place attests, this wasn't
the building's first association with broadcasting. During those famous Ed
Murrow rooftops descriptions of London throughout the Blitz, the US
correspondent had used the top of 200 Oxford Street as one of his vantage
points, though he never revealed this at the time.

Although the upper floors of the building are now named after
George Orwell, his time at the BBC as an Eastern Services producer and
broadcaster were described by the novelist as "two wasted years." His
diary reflects that "much of the stuff that goes out from the BBC is just
shot into the stratosphere, not listened to by anybody".

Staff at 200 Oxford Street would jokingly refer to the
building as the ZOO. The studios themselves were perhaps not best placed for
noise pollution from the nearest tube line. Edward Pawley's history of BBC
Engineering explains: "Just as the noise from the Bakerloo Tube could be
heard in the basement studios of Broadcasting House when it was opened in 1932,
the noise of the underground trains on the Central London Line could be heard
in some of the studios at 200 Oxford Street, which were about 50 ft below
ground level. It was, in fact, possible to distinguish the arrival and
departure of the trains, and the opening and closing of their doors. One of the
many overseas visitors who came to visit Bush House after the war claimed that
he had been able to identify a particular studio when listening 5000 miles away
by the sound of the underground trains — and he was right."

Before her time presenting Forces Favourites (later Family
Favourites) Jean Metcalfe had joined the BBC's General Office in the summer
of 1940. She soon moved across to the Empire Service to help deal with the fan
mail that came in for the announcers. Jean takes up the story of how she got
her break into broadcasting: "the Service was expanding with the need to
keep overseas territories in touch with London and soon we were moved from our
makeshift office in the Restaurant Annexe of Broadcasting House, with its food smells
and plasterboard partitions, to 200 Oxford Street, the old Peter Robinson building.
Now there were dozens of us working twenty-four hours a day on the Overseas
Service. My work became more clerical than secretarial, thank God, and even
brought me glimpses of the studios below grounds. One joyous day, May 24th 1941,
Noel Iliff asked me to read Thomas Nashe's poem Spring, the sweet Spring in a programme he was producing, Books and People at 1500 GMT. The
refrain 'Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo' would sound silly, he said, in
the deep voice of the presenter, the novelist Gerald Bullet. It sounded pretty
silly in mine too, I thought. However, it didn't matter if only a handful of
homesick Kenyan planters would hear me, I was on the wireless - at last."

BBC producer Trevor Hill was one of the BBC staff, at that
time a Programme Engineer, who made the move round the corner to Oxford Street
where he worked on Radio Newsreel and
many other programmes: "My job, when I started work at 200 Oxford Street
in the Continuity Studios, was to play music on gramophone records besides
complete programmes recorded by the BBC on seventeen-inch 'slow speed' discs.
That was in the days before microgrooves had been invented. The BBC slow speed
records would have things like Front Line
Family recorded on them. Then there was the Epilogue. On a particular
Sunday evening when I was working in the Continuity Studio for the Pacific
Service I had a very nice Australian announcer on duty with me, Isabel Ann
Shead. The trusting Ann turned to me and asked what was next on that day's
Routine Transmission Schedule. I consulted the document. 'Oh, it's the old
E-pill-o-gog,' I replied facetiously. Miss Shead went into action. 'This is the
Pacific Service of the BBC.' We were allowed the slightest reverential pause
for such a Sunday transmission. 'The E-pill-o-gog!' declared the good lady for
all to hear."

David Jacobs was briefly based at 200 Oxford Street after
the war when he joined the BBC as an announcer in a team that included Jack de
Manio, Jean Metcalfe and Mary Malcolm. His recollection of his time there seems
to be full of japes: "for instance during a band show at Hammersmith
Palais de Danse, where I was sharing announcing duties with Mary Malcolm, Mary
turned to me before one number and said 'I can't think of anything, David -
what shall I say?' 'Oh, say the next tune reminds you of the film Sweater Girl,' I told her. Mary had not
time to sort this out. She trustingly stepped up to the microphone and
announced to a large section of the English-speaking world: 'The next number
always reminds me of the film Sweater
Girl. ladies and gentlemen, The Jersey Bounce!' And her horrified 'Oh,
David, you're dreadful!' also went winging out on the waves before she stepped
back again."

But it wasn't all high jinks for David. For a while he was
also one of the readers on Book of Verse,
produced by a recent recruit to the BBC staff, one John Arlott. David
recalls:"One of the things John taught me was how to get a story told in
thirty seconds or a minute with a beginning, a middle and an end. he had me
looking out of the window of his room overlooking Oxford Street and said,
'Righto, here's a watch. I want you to tell me what's happening in that street.
You have to start when I tell you and when it comes to thirty seconds you've
got to be halfway through and knowing you've got thirty seconds to finish and
at the minute you've got to have finished. Not a minute and one second, a
minute.' He had me doing that for quite a time, which I found very attractive
for two reasons. One, that he should take the trouble to do it, and two, that
he was concerned that I should learn. Ever since, it's been very useful,
because if somebody says ' Will you give me thirty seconds,' I can count in my
head and do it."

The BBC continued to occupy 200 Oxford Street until late
1957 by which time any remaining staff were moved over to Bush House. The building
then reverted back to retail use and was occupied by C&A for over forty
years until the company closed down its UK business in 2001.

In 2006 the site was redeveloped by ORMS Architectural
Design on behalf of Redevco (the ultimate owners of C&A's property
portfolio) to create the retail space for Urban Outfitters and Shuh and then
apartments above named Orwell Studios. With that rooftop view from which those
wartime broadcasts were made you can now occupy a 2-bedroomed penthouse
apartment for £1.7m.

Friday, 7 July 2017

The recording of his voice will be played again this
September. "This is Radio 2, the Light Programme". It was a moment in
radio history of which he was justly proud. He was to make something of a
career out of launching radio stations - later came Radio 210, Blue Danube
Radio and Vienna International Radio. The voice is that of Paul Hollingdale
whose death, at the age of 83, was announced this week.

Paul was born in Brighton in 1938. I can find nothing about
his early upbringing or education other than the fact that as a lad he appeared
as an extra in the 1947 film release of, aptly enough, Brighton Rock.

His National Service was in the RAF and he was eventually
posted to RAF Wahn in Germany, fairly close to the headquarters of the British
Forces Network in Cologne. He was keen to get into radio and after helping out
in the gramophone library was offered the chance to produce a Latin American
dance programme. Soon after he was in front of the microphone as one of the
BFN's team of announcers looking after the early morning show Musical Clock. His passion was the
cinema, perhaps spurred by that early dalliance with filming in Brighton, and
he used to broadcast film programmes whilst with the BFN. It was in 1959 that
he made his first appearance on the BBC as the host of the German leg of Two-Way Family Favourites.

Back in the UK in 1960 Paul was looking for work when he met
up with Canadian DJ Doug Stanley, who'd also appeared on BFN Cologne. Stanley
had set up the grandly named Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company Ltd -
"your friendly host of the Dutch coast" - an English speaking pirate
radio station based on Radio Veronica's ship the MV Borkum Rift. Paul, who by
now has also found work in the London studios of Radio Luxembourg on the Phillips sponsored The Six O'Clock Record Show, joined CNBC
from autumn 1960 and stayed there to the summer of 1961.

In late 1961 Paul was back on dry land working freelance
both for the BBC on shows Teenagers' Turn,
Playtime and Things are Swingin' as well as appearing on Radio Luxembourg as one
of the announcers out in the Grand Duchy on shows such as The Big 'O' Show sponsored by Oriole Records.

At this
point I'll let Paul take up the story: "I had been working for Radio
Luxembourg since the early sixties, either as a London based DJ presenting
sponsored shows, or living as a resident on the Grand Duchy. I was in fact there for two and a half
years. At Easter in April 1964 I
travelled to Amsterdam with another DJ, a friend called Don Wardell, as we had
heard that Radio Caroline was being launched that weekend. Because the signal
would be inaudible, we decided on Holland because it was near the coast. We
heard the first broadcast with Simon Dee and I told Don, that in my opinion,
this launch would change the whole history of UK Radio. During the Summer we
heard the impact that Caroline was having, and I made a decision to leave 208
and return to London in September of that year.
I heard that the BBC were looking for contract announcers and I applied
and got a job".

Having
joined the Presentation team, working for Andrew Timothy, he would do the usual
rounds of news bulletins, continuity announcements, concert introductions and
gramophone record shows like Morning
Music, Delaney's Delight, Mack is Back, Swing Into Summer, Stay Late
and the first editions of Nord-Ring.

Here's Paul
again: "One of my first hurdles was to handle the death of Churchill which
I announced with all the protocol that went with that on that Sunday morning in
January 1965. Andrew Timothy told me that I would have to be
de-luxembourgised and I was directed to
listen to various announcers like Colin Doran, Frank Phillips and Tim Gudgin.

Because of
my versatility, during the next couple of years I was put to work presenting an
eclectic mix of series like Music in the
Peter York Manner and Mack is Back,
a big band show with the then very popular Ken MacIntosh and his Orchestra broadcast
from the Playhouse Theatre down by the Thames embankment. There were others like
occasional programmes on the then Home Service with such groups as the Novelairs
directed by Edward Rubach. I was also
involved in Nord-Ring, where I
presented various light music concerts travelling around Europe which were
aired on the Light Programme. In between all of that, I was a newsreader on Radio Newsreel and did occasional shows
for the World Service.

I then began
working with (producer) Doreen Davies on the show Swing Into Summer - a three hour afternoon segment. In fact I
was used at every opportunity and from 1964 to the start of Radio 2 in 67 - I
probably presented more shows than anyone else.
The reason for this was that many of the older brigade of announcers
like Frank Phillips, Alvar Liddell, John Snagge, John Webster etc. couldn't
quite believe that changes were in the air and so they didn't want to involve
themselves and weren't in tune with the trends in pop music at that time. Apart
from that they were all coming into the final furlong of their careers at the
Beeb.

By 1965 the long running Morning Music sequence, which was un-announced except for time
checks, news and weather, was in need of a change and Breakfast Special came in being. So some of the 'Light' announcers
such John Roberts, Peter Latham, John Dunn and myself were given the show
to present on a turnabout basis. It was then they decided to introduce a
limited amount of 'needletime' into the shows -
one disc every fifteen minutes. And there were inserts of vocals
from groups like The Settlers, The Peter
King Chorale, Lois Lane etc".

In September
1967 came that famous opening announcement, Controller Robin Scott having
chosen Paul for the task. If the usual Saturday morning pattern had been
followed that would have fallen to Bruce Wyndham.

Paul
continued to appear on Radio 2's Breakfast
Special, presenting his final show on Friday 2 January 1970. Remarkably an
off-air recording exists of that show. "Hello and good morning everyone.
This is yours truly Paul Hollingdale here for the very last time..."

No reason
was given for Paul's departure but in 2012 he candidly told me what had
occurred backstage and I hope that he wouldn't mind me repeating the story:
"I have never mentioned this before but my departure was very
curious. The then Controller of the
Network, Douglas Muggeridge, didn't particularly like me on the air, despite
the fact that I was very popular with the listeners. One day I was called to his office to say
that I would be coming off Breakfast
Special and that was it. As there
was no explanation - I told him that I wouldn't mind returning to announcer
duties - but he was emphatic he wanted me out of the building. I had no
confrontation with the man. I hardly
knew him as he was tucked away in his office most of the time together with all
the other 'suits.' My departure created
a lot of problems at the time as there was no-where else to go. I have to tell you that I felt a lot of
anguish at the time of my leaving, as I had given every hour of my life to the
station, even taking up residence In Hallam Street adjacent to Broadcasting
House".

In the event
Paul headed back to his home town of Brighton, for a while working freelance on
BBC Radio Brighton and also meeting up with local singer Johnny Wakelin whom he
ended up managing for a few years.

Regular
radio work beckoned again when Radio 210 opened in Reading in early 1976, again
Paul was the first voice on-air, or strictly speaking the first DJ, if you
count Arthur Lowe's appearance as Captain Mainwaring. Paul recalled that
"210 started very middle of the road. That didn't last long and a few
months later we were playing Top 40 stuff."

In 1979 Paul
helped found and launched the English-speaking service from ORF, the Austrian
state broadcaster, Blue Danube Radio. Initially he would split his time between
Vienna and the UK but eventually his beloved Vienna would become his home for many years.
During the 1980s and 90s he was also heard on Chiltern Radio (audio here),
presented film programmes and reviews on LBC, Radio Luxembourg and Sky TV and was part
of the launch line-up for Country 1035.

Blue Danube
Radio closed in 2000 but Paul continued to work for ORF and other companies
such as Inflight Productions. In September 2007 he made a one-off return to the
BBC for Radio 2's 40th anniversary to recall his role in the start of the
network. (audio here) In October 2012 he launched his final radio project, an
English-speaking news and music station, Vienna International Radio. Here's
Paul on VIR on 14 November 2013.

In recent
months Paul gave an extensive interview about the Light Programme and Radio 2 for
inclusion in a couple of documentaries produced by Made in Manchester that are
to air on Radio 2 this autumn. Ever the radio professional, whilst in his
hospital bed he continued to record reports for Vienna International Radio. He
died of cancer on the morning of 5 July.

Paul Trevor Anthony Hollingdale 1934-2017

I never met
Paul but from 2012 onwards we had an email correspondence about his radio
career and he was always more than willing to help me with my research for the
blog. On occasions I was able to provide him with copies of some of his old
shows and he was grateful for being reunited with his earlier self. He once
told me that "I always enjoy your gems from the past. I think most people
in radio in the UK think I have retired to Eastbourne and residing in the Home
for the Bewildered DJs. How wrong they
are". I was saddened to hear of his death and I hope that this tribute
goes some way to providing a more complete picture of the career of a broadcaster whose role in radio history is assured.

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About Me

Hailing originally from Hull and spending most of my life in East Yorkshire I'm now resident in France.
For over 30 years I've been interested in radio, tv and film and have an archive of off-air recordings and radio-related material.
I'm not the Andy Walmsley that designs sets or produces tv programmes.
Professionally I worked in Local Government.
My wife Val works for Beaux Villages Immobilier.